Dressing Up as Florence Welch part 1 – or – Britt’s Guide to Fake Tattoos

I’ve always wanted to dress up as… Florence Welch [from Florence + the Machine].
Last week, I went to a party that invited people to dress up as whatever they wanted. There were lots of superheroes and cartoon characters present. But me, I chose to dress as Florence Welch, because I’ve always wanted an excuse to draw tattoos on my arm and cover my face in glitter. The actual costume wasn’t difficult to put together – all I really needed to buy were the hotpants – but the makeup took a little creativity.

So, I present to you:Britt’s Simple Guide for Drawing Fake Tattoos.

Tools:
A picture of the original tattoo for reference [I used this one]
A black biro
Gel pens in as many colours as required [in this case: black, red, blue & yellow]
A palate of cheap eyeshadow [one of those ones with way too many colours]
Cotton buds

Step one: draw the outline.
Using the biro, draw the basic outline of your tattoo onto the desired area of skin. Flo’s tats are on her left arm, but as I’m left-handed, I drew them on my right. If you’re not too good at drawing, try printing off the image, turning the paper over and going over the outline in biro on the back of the page. Then, press the fresh biro outline onto your skin. Don’t press too hard with the pen, because this outline is just a guide. If you think it’s a bit dark, let it dry and then lightly wash some of the colour away with cold water. Don’t use soap, as you might accidentally lose the whole image.

Step two: colour it in.
If you have some, rub a bit of primer into your skin, and let it dry. This will help to hold the colour. Then, using the gel pens, colour in each part of your tattoo. Unlike textas, gel pens don’t tend to run when used on skin, and the colours stay pretty bright. If you don’t have all the right colours, don’t fret – that’s where the eyeshadow comes in.

Step three: highlight.
Using the eyeshadow, carefully go over your coloured areas. This can help with shading, and fills in any bits that you didn’t have the right colour pens for. If your applicator is a little big, try using a cotton bud. For fine areas, dip the cotton bud in water before loading your colour.

Step four: finish.
The final step is to retrace the outline with the black gel pen, and add any embellishments [text, etc.]. Neaten up any rough edges/smudges with a cotton bud dipped in either water or a gentle make-up remover. Try to make sure your tattoo doesn’t rub against any clothing, and, whatever you do, don’t get it wet! [Also, don’t accidentally spray it with hairspray]. The end.